Sunday, January 24, 2010
Happy 2010 to anyone who still reads this. I don't post here very often because I mainly post to my Live Journal account.
It's been an interesting year. I think the past 18+ months, since "The Sub-Prime Economic Crime Wave," (as I call it) - have been pretty rough on us all. Any of my friends and family who have not lost their jobs are worried about losing their jobs.
I heard an interesting quote today: "Everyone talks about making the world a better place, but over the last 50 years things have been getting worse and worse." (a fictional character)
I'm not saying I totally agree with that statement. Things have gotten better for gays and lesbians, we have a Black President, the medical advancements have been nothing short of amazing, and people are starting to realize how toxic (poisonous) American TV and the mass media at large have become to the people.
But the divide between rich and poor has grown wider. The American Middle Class is diminishing, and it's not because they are moving up. Millions of people will lose their homes, and we will likely have the country's largest homeless population in our history. Our political system is hopelessly corrupt, like a rotten fruit that should be discarded. We need to rebuild our Democracy from the ground up, as our Founding Fathers foresaw. I'm afraid I don't hold out much hope in that department. As long as the Corporations and Radical Religious Right set the agenda, our country becomes more and more fucked-up.
My home state of California is broke because of a dysfunctional political system, an over-reliance on prisons to solve our problems, and a tax system that's essentially a massive give-away to Corporations. Our asshole Governor would rather take life-saving drugs away from people with HIV/AIDS than release the thousands of non-violent drug "offenders" who don't belong in our bloated Prison-Industrial Complex.
Erik and I were in Brazil right before the holidays, and I have to admit that a part of me didn't want to come home. I could see us living in a house on the water near the historic town of Paraty. But the San Francisco Bay Area is our home, and this is where Erik makes his living.
I took a break from writing when we went to Brazil, and after the holidays I extended it. I'll go back to working on the book series, but I'm in no hurry to publish for a couple of reasons. Like most industries in America, the publishing world is in turmoil also. Now is a good time to work on my writing, and work on my manuscripts and short stories.
My health remains the same. My CD4 count remains high and my Viral Load remains "undetectable," (meaning below 50 copies in the bloodstream.) The back pain is the same. The only thing that changes is I eventually build-up a tolerance to the drugs, and they have to increase the dose. I still do my 30 push-ups (almost) every day, and I walk and hike with my friends whenever I can.
It's been raining cats and dogs here in Northern California.
And like most of us, almost everything else is up in the air. At times like these I don't know what I would do without Erik, my family, and my friends. I hope things start to get better for all of us.
Soon.
It's been an interesting year. I think the past 18+ months, since "The Sub-Prime Economic Crime Wave," (as I call it) - have been pretty rough on us all. Any of my friends and family who have not lost their jobs are worried about losing their jobs.
I heard an interesting quote today: "Everyone talks about making the world a better place, but over the last 50 years things have been getting worse and worse." (a fictional character)
I'm not saying I totally agree with that statement. Things have gotten better for gays and lesbians, we have a Black President, the medical advancements have been nothing short of amazing, and people are starting to realize how toxic (poisonous) American TV and the mass media at large have become to the people.
But the divide between rich and poor has grown wider. The American Middle Class is diminishing, and it's not because they are moving up. Millions of people will lose their homes, and we will likely have the country's largest homeless population in our history. Our political system is hopelessly corrupt, like a rotten fruit that should be discarded. We need to rebuild our Democracy from the ground up, as our Founding Fathers foresaw. I'm afraid I don't hold out much hope in that department. As long as the Corporations and Radical Religious Right set the agenda, our country becomes more and more fucked-up.
My home state of California is broke because of a dysfunctional political system, an over-reliance on prisons to solve our problems, and a tax system that's essentially a massive give-away to Corporations. Our asshole Governor would rather take life-saving drugs away from people with HIV/AIDS than release the thousands of non-violent drug "offenders" who don't belong in our bloated Prison-Industrial Complex.
Erik and I were in Brazil right before the holidays, and I have to admit that a part of me didn't want to come home. I could see us living in a house on the water near the historic town of Paraty. But the San Francisco Bay Area is our home, and this is where Erik makes his living.
I took a break from writing when we went to Brazil, and after the holidays I extended it. I'll go back to working on the book series, but I'm in no hurry to publish for a couple of reasons. Like most industries in America, the publishing world is in turmoil also. Now is a good time to work on my writing, and work on my manuscripts and short stories.
My health remains the same. My CD4 count remains high and my Viral Load remains "undetectable," (meaning below 50 copies in the bloodstream.) The back pain is the same. The only thing that changes is I eventually build-up a tolerance to the drugs, and they have to increase the dose. I still do my 30 push-ups (almost) every day, and I walk and hike with my friends whenever I can.
It's been raining cats and dogs here in Northern California.
And like most of us, almost everything else is up in the air. At times like these I don't know what I would do without Erik, my family, and my friends. I hope things start to get better for all of us.
Soon.
